We are sorry for not keeping this blog up to date. We are going to try to do this much better as we have decided to go back to Africa!

It has been three weeks since we have updated last and we thought we would briefly catch you all up on the adventurous events in that time.
We went Christmas tree hunting with my family after Thanksgiving and had a fun time in the snow with friends and family. It is a tradition to go out in a big group in to the mountains around our house to get the tree and we have been doing it for about 10 years on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year was relatively small with only about 20 people in our group (we have had as many as 50 people one year.) We know that we are in the right spot when the first person is stuck in the snow and we all pull them out, start a fire, have some chili and start looking for a tree. It is a great time of snowball fights laughs and big trees. Alex, a friend that has gone with us for the last 5 years, got a 20 ft tree that he cut in half and put in both stories of his house to make it look as though it was growing right through his ceiling!
Our tree was about 24 feet tall and we had to cut about 2 feet off so it would fit but after we got it in, we decided that it was perfect. We spent the rest of the next week decorating and lighting it together as a family.

On the last day of my brother was here (and 6 hours before his plane home) he and I went decided to go on an adventure.


We took the trooper hooky bobbing and to make a long story short, we were stuck...really stuck.



We tried to free the rig but it was frozen to the earth with only two tires touching the ground.

Having all the gear for a night in the snow packed in car (thanks Mom) we chose to try hiking home. When we were ready for the long hike back, we tried one last time to get the trooper unstuck . Much to our surprise, introducing a third tire to the ground by jumping on the bumper and rocking back and forth, actually freed us from the two-foot thick white tar. With all the excitement of getting out, new (and somewhat poor) ideas jumped to our mind. Our trooper's newfound liberty was quickly reclaimed by the snow as we tried to make our way home.

We were now an hour later, darker and colder as we again started to hike, (this time wisely avoiding the temptation to try getting the car unstuck once more. After about two hours of hiking as many miles, the most beautiful and wise women I know; my wife and mother, rescued us. Their Beauty is know to all who meet them and their wisdom was once again demonstrated in my wife's forethought to slip us a GPS and walkie-talkie as we left for our adventure.

They got us home in time to get CJ packed and then off to Portland to try to get CJ to his airplane. His flight left at 11:20 pm, they left our house in Camp Sherman at 8:00 pm in a blizzard. It snowed all the way to PDX. He arrived at the ticket counter at 11:12. They did not let him on the plan. In fact it had left early and as he was late his ticket might have been forfeited. But after giving an account of the hard fought battle to get to his plane, ("the ditch just jumped up and swallowed the trooper whole and I barely got away with my life") they got him a new ticket for the next day.

The following week we took care of five dogs, three horses and one cat. It was tough job but good, as it has helped us pay for Christmas presents. There was a lot of walking, a lot of slobber and a whole lot of poop to shovel. In the end it was even a little fun although I don't think we will be getting a dog any time soon. With some of the money, Leslie and I even got to go out on a date.

Next came the Christmas party in Portland where we got to share the heart of Bridges of Hope with our family. They listened for the better part of an hour (my uncle and dad only fell asleep for thirty minutes). The said they would love to support us anyway they could. It was a huge blessing and we look forward to starting the support process once we get the final go ahead from BHI which we hope will be the end of this month.

After all the excitement of the last two weeks we thought it would be nice to get away for a while and went to coast for three days of R&R. It was great! The weather kept us on our toes and cuddled close with spots of sun followed almost immediately with 70 mph wind and rain. Storms at the Coast are terrific. The waves and the sky indistinguishable save the sound. Salty fog you can taste, eons of erosion in the sand with rocks jutting out into the surf, defying the time and waves. In addition, watching the fire and reading a book next to a woman who defines beauty is not that bad either! It was exactly what we needed to steady our nerves before the next adventure, which occurred within 24 hours of getting back home.

We came back to decorate for a Search and Rescue Party. Leslie spent all day cleaning and making the house look great while I did all the shopping and errands in Bend. The party had just started when I heard a phone ring. I went back to our answering machine to see who was calling. I heard a very excited/ slightly scared voice on the machine so I picked it up. It was our friend Kelly. She said that a huge tree had just fallen on our house in Corvallis!

That was Thursday night. We asked my friend Jorma to check it out see if I needed to come over that night. He said that we didn't so we went over to see the carnage done to our house on Friday. The tree is 3 1/2 feet thick and about 80 feet long. It crushed our eves and put two branches right through the roof over our dining room. Did I mention that it was our neighbor’s tree?

The way it fell was very lucky because it landed almost directly on our cinderblock wall that kept it from going through on to Kelly and the friends she had over to play board games. They said that they were just sitting there playing monopoly by candle light as the power had already gone out. When all of a sudden they heard a huge crash and ran to the front door only to see tree limbs.

This is a huge tree and it almost covers the entire roof. As of right now 8:35 pm on Saturday, it is still there. We still have no power and because we have a well that needs electricity, we are also without water.

My uncle and aunt have graciously put us up in their home and we have spent most of the day today using their house as our command post, making calls and plans. It will take a while to make the house safe again, but we know that we are in His hands and it is really His house and that makes it a little easier.

Please keep us posted on how all of you are doing and what life is teaching you.

God Bless and we will keep you posted on the continuing adventure and saga of


Matt & Leslie